STEVE McQueen won the Golden Camera award at Cannes for his debut film Hunger in 2008, rounded off later with the Most Promising Newcomer award at the 2009 Baftas.

STEVE McQueen won the Golden Camera award at Cannes for his debut film Hunger in 2008, rounded off later with the Most Promising Newcomer award at the 2009 Baftas.

Now he’s reunited with its star, Michael Fassbender, in what turns out to be a harrowing journey of a different kind about a man with a sexual addiction which is threatening to run completely out of control.

The film is beautifully directed, stunningly shot and very well acted.

Already a best film and best actor winner at Venice, more awards will beckon.

But as an experience, it’s not one I’d be wishing to repeat any time soon.

The story opens with Brandon (Fassbender) wandering around naked and leaving nothing to the imagination.

Even going to the loo isn’t out of bounds.

At work, Brandon’s computer is being fixed.

His sparse flat includes a laptop, other adult material and a bed.

There are a succession of visitors for gratification purposes and he has an uneasy relationship with one regular guest in particular – Cissy (Carey Mulligan).

During the course of the film we see how Brandon is potentially attractive to other women – especially when he wears his scarf like Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini.

But he still seems to be trapped inside joyless, hollow-eyed world of loneliness and despair.

“I don’t understand why people would want to get married, now,” he tells one date.

“I don’t see the point.”

Fassbender is a terrific actor, rather like Christian Bale minus the baggage.

But Shame is as emotionally cold as its leading man, the stark cinematography a reminder that it’s not buildings which make a city like New York but the humans who use them.

“We’re not bad people,” says Cissy. “We just come from a bad place.”

But instead of being sexually explicit, a bit more of their back story or professional help might have been handy.

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